During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), Qingdao has focused on developing high-quality small and medium-sized enterprises, as they play a critical role in the industry chain and technological innovation. Among these enterprises, the city has placed particular emphasis on technological innovation within SRDI enterprises, which feature specialization, refinement, distinctiveness and innovation, achieving remarkable results through a series of efforts.

To support their development, Qingdao strengthened cooperation across departments and regions. In addition, the city has built a comprehensive support system for these enterprises — from identification and evaluation to nurturing and empowering them. At present, Qingdao is home to 5,510 innovative SMEs, 3,315 provincial-level SRDI enterprises, and 256 national-level SRDI enterprises. These figures rank first in Shandong province.

In terms of commercialization of research results, Qingdao has launched SRDI enterprise industry chain matching activities to meet development needs. These activities not only encouraged enterprises to open up application scenarios and various innovative resources, but also built bridges between upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry chain, promoting innovation and development among enterprises of different scales. To date, Qingdao has hosted 44 specialized matchmaking activities, facilitating over 10 signed agreements and technological cooperation projects, with more than 30 additional projects in the pipeline.

To support corporate innovation and transformation, the city has guided SRDI enterprises to update their technology and equipment, driving them toward intelligent, green and integrated transformation and upgrading. Since 2021, nearly 3,000 enterprises have received support.

In the area of industry-academia collaboration, Qingdao has organized innovation training camps for industry-university-research collaboration. These initiatives invited SRDI enterprises to engage in technical exchanges and on-site learning at institutions, including Ocean University of China and Qingdao University of Science and Technology. This approach also facilitates the precise matching of innovation resources.

In the future, Qingdao will improve policies and services to enhance the innovation capabilities and competitiveness of SRDI enterprises, thereby advancing the city's development of technology and new quality productive forces.